Mobile Madness – The Tools

Mar24,2016

Jennifer Bennett

The results are in and the winners from yesterday are: iOS, React Native, Objective C, and Swift (Obviously some apple fan-boys out there). Here is your updated Bracket.

On to the final first-round bracket of Mobile Madness 2016. The Tools. You need them, the love them, you hate them, you shout whyyyyy at the sky while Xcode hangs. Which is the best? Which is crucial to mobile development? Let’s begin.

First up: iOS Tools

Xcode vs AppCode

Xcode gets a lot of flack from developers because Apple more-or-less forces their developers to use it. Sure, it has tons of great features and debugging tools, but every little glitch or crash becomes colossally irritating because of a lack of alternative options. Enter AppCode, JetBrains’ introduction into an iOS and OS X IDE. AppCode attempts to solve a lot of the headaches Xcode creates, like improved refactoring support and auto-generated snippets. But AppCode comes with a hefty price tag and often lags behind when Apple releases new APIs. Is the increased convenience worth the cost? You decide! Answer the twitter poll here

Second Bracket: Android Tools

Android Studio vs Eclipse

Eclipse has long been a Java programmer’s goto IDE for all of their needs. Console applications, GUI applications, applets, web apps, and more can all be cranked out from Eclipse. It’s no wonder why Google initially supported Eclipse when they debuted their Android SDK. But now a newcomer on the scene, Android Studio, has stolen the spotlight and captured the hearts of Android developers everywhere. With Google officially deprecating their Eclipse support and actively promoting Android Studio, you might say the sun is setting on Eclipse for Android development. But that hasn’t deterred many Android developers who have been using Eclipse for years and don’t feel the need to switch. Which will reign supreme: comfort or cutting edge? Answer the twitter poll here

Third Bracket: Continuous Build Systems

Jenkins vs Travis CI

When it comes to making sure your code is stable, Jenkins offers a great set of tools for building, testing, and more. As an open source project, Jenkins provides a high level of flexibility for implementing real continuous integration for any platform. Additionally, it’s free (as in beer)! Travis CI, much like Jenkins is no slouch when it comes to building your apps. With a beautiful interface, you can quickly check that status of your project. Additionally, Travis CI manages the infrastructure for you making it one less thing to worry about when it comes to working with CI tools. Which mustachio’d tool do you prefer? Answer the twitter poll here

Fourth Bracket: Cloud Storage

Heroku vs AWS

From the juggernaut that revolutionized online shopping, Amazon is using their knowledge to provide the best in cloud computing. With it’s massive offering of paid services, you can design, build, and deploy all your digital content in a matter of minutes. If you have a DevOps need, Amazon has a service for it. On the other side is Heroku, the developer friendly infrastructure service. Heroku can help developers by clearing out the chaos that can come with managing your own stack, like with tools to automatically deploy and push on each code commit. As your application needs to scale, Heroku’s marketplace of paid add-ons is sure to have what you’re looking for. Answer the twitter poll here

About

Make a giant leap feel like a small step with LunarLincoln. Located in the heart of Nashville, LunarLincoln is a mobile development shop that builds apps for iOS, Android, and Mac platforms.
Whether this is your first mission or you’re a seasoned explorer, draw on LunarLincoln’s industry experience for an app that shoots for the moon.